Conventionally, such a vehicle as station wagon and minivan has a relatively large opening section formed on one side of the vehicle for allowing an occupant to easily getting on and off the vehicle and carry a luggage in and out of the vehicle. The opening section is opened and closed with a slide door having a roller assembly. Since such a slide door is heavy, the vehicle having the slide door is equipped with a slide door opening and closing mechanism which can automatically open and close the slide door.
The slide door opening and closing mechanism has a guide rail along which the roller assembly rolls to guide the slide door on move. The guide rail is disposed near the opening section and extends in the front-to-rear direction of the vehicle. On the vehicle-front-side of the guide rail, a guide-in portion is formed, which is curved from the side of the vehicle toward the interior of the vehicle to form a guide-in track. As a result, when the slide door is about to be fully closed, the roller assembly rolls along the guide-in portion, which causes the slide door to slide into the opening section, thus putting the slide door in a fully closed state.
A pulley apparatus is disposed on the vehicle-front-side of the guide rail and on the vehicle-rear-side of the same, the pulley apparatus changing the pulling direction of a cable which pulls the slide door in an opening direction and a closing direction. The pulley apparatus changes the direction the cable to direct it toward the center of the guide rail, and the cable whose direction is changed by the pulley apparatus is wound around a drum of a drive unit disposed on the vehicle. The drive unit is driven to rotate the drum clockwise or counterclockwise, which causes the cable to pull the slide door in the opening direction or the closing direction.
A technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-213831 (FIGS. 4 and 6) is known as a technique related to such a slide door opening and closing mechanism. According to the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-213831, a guide-in portion (front side) of a guide rail is provided with a pulley assembly (pulley apparatus), which has a pulley case fixed to a vehicle body (vehicle body panel). The pulley case has a resin case body. A pulley housing portion housing a pulley therein is formed on one side of the case body along its lengthwise direction, while a fitting portion for fixing the pulley case to the vehicle body is formed on the other end of the case body along its lengthwise direction.
The fitting portion of the case body is fitted to a stepped part of the vehicle body with a bolt and a nut so that the pulley case in its almost cantilevered position is anchored to the vehicle body. This means that the pulley housing portion of the case body is not fixed to the vehicle body. Between the pulley housing portion and the vehicle body, a rubber cover is disposed to cover a wire inlet/outlet, preventing entry of rainwater, etc., into the pulley case.